TIMES OF KATHANAR -Desert Fr.Ji: "Our Laziness and Lack of Faith Leads Us into a De...
TIMES OF KATHANAR -Desert Fr.Ji: "Our Laziness and Lack of Faith Leads Us into a De...: By Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok I’m a priest, right? A spiritual father, if you like. To be honest, I’m nobody. I know that but I also know t...
"Our Laziness and Lack of Faith Leads Us into a Dead-End!"
By Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok
I’m a priest, right? A spiritual father, if you like. To be honest, I’m nobody. I know that but I also know that there is the devil who sneers at me gleefully, “Aha! You’re done!” I say, “No, I’ve only just begun. I want to change. I want to be different. I want to serve God.” I clearly feel during the ensuing battle that God is near. When I feel despondent and start wailing that everything is bad, everything is lost, I remain alone in the void, face to face with my sins.
I have to talk about my own experience, not about something that I’ve read in books. Our life is the only real book. Everyone has his own book and his own problems that he has to tackle. God is the one who resolves all problems.
All our problems have been solved already: Christ is risen, the door to the paradise is wide open. Sadly, we rely on this world and on the sin that dwells inside our hearts. We pretend to be soldiers but we don’t know how to fight. It isn’t because we aren’t educated enough. It’s because we are lazy, idle, and proud. What can you be proud of, honestly? But you are proud nonetheless. One can be a beggar and sit on a church porch with a stretched hand and judge everyone. Or one can drive a Mercedes Benz and not judge anyone. A criminal can find God in prison and be free. That same criminal can lose God once he gets out of jail and finds himself in a different setting. That’s abhorrent. When that guy was in prison, he prayed. It was marvellous. His eyes shone forth the light of faith. When he got released, worldly temptations tied him up and he lost his freedom…
The sin mutates so well! It attempts to attack us from all sides and under all kinds of masks, so we have to be alert and stay awake at all times. If we aren’t awake, if we lead a relaxed life, sin will deceive us and the devil will lead us into dead-ends. Our lack of trust in God and the laziness that leads us to wrong actions over and over again is the dead-end.
We can correct our errors because we are still here on earth. We can change our lives. We can repent. Repentance isn’t just a word. It’s life. Repentance means changing our lives. It’s proof that we will not sin any longer: “At least, I’ve made up my mind not to sin. I know I can’t do that on my own, so help me Lord!” If one is resolute in doing so, he won’t sin, of course. When an individual says, “Well, I’d like to quit smoking—all residents of our rehabilitation centre want to quit smoking—but I can’t, you know,” it’s self-deception. You’d better admit, “I don’t want to stop, at least for now.” It’s honest. People deceive themselves when they say they can’t. They can do everything. They can do everything if they really need it and if they ask for God’s help.The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew,
The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew,
was also named Levi (Mk. 2: 14; Lk. 5: 27); he was an Apostle from among the Twelve (Mk. 3: 18; Lk. 6: 45; Acts 1: 13), and was brother of the Apostle James Alphaeus (Mk. 2: 14). He was a publican, i.e. a tax-collector for Rome, in a time when the Jews had come under the rule of the Roman empire. He lived in the Galileian city of Capernaum [Capharnum]. Matthew, in hearing the voice of Jesus Christ: "Come, follow Me" (Mt. 9: 9), left off from his duties and followed the Saviour. Christ and His disciples did not refuse the invitation of Matthew and they visited at his house, where they shared table with the friends and acquaintances of the publican – who like the host were publicans and known sinners. This event extremely bothered the pharisees and scribes ["knizhniki", lit. bookmen or scholars].
was also named Levi (Mk. 2: 14; Lk. 5: 27); he was an Apostle from among the Twelve (Mk. 3: 18; Lk. 6: 45; Acts 1: 13), and was brother of the Apostle James Alphaeus (Mk. 2: 14). He was a publican, i.e. a tax-collector for Rome, in a time when the Jews had come under the rule of the Roman empire. He lived in the Galileian city of Capernaum [Capharnum]. Matthew, in hearing the voice of Jesus Christ: "Come, follow Me" (Mt. 9: 9), left off from his duties and followed the Saviour. Christ and His disciples did not refuse the invitation of Matthew and they visited at his house, where they shared table with the friends and acquaintances of the publican – who like the host were publicans and known sinners. This event extremely bothered the pharisees and scribes ["knizhniki", lit. bookmen or scholars].Publicans, in collecting taxes from their countrymen, did this with great profit for themselves. Usually greedy and cruel people, the Jews considered them pernicious and betrayers of their country and religion. The word "publican" connoted for the Jews the sense of "public-sinner" and "idol-worshipper". To even speak with a tax-collector was considered a sin, and to associate with one – was defilement. But the Jewish teachers were not able to comprehend, that the Lord was "come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Mt. 9: 13).
Matthew, acknowledging his sinfulness, recompensed fourfold anyone he had overcharged, and he distributed his remaining possessions to the poor, and together with the other apostles he followed after Christ. Saint Matthew was attentive to the instructions of the Divine Teacher, he beheld His innumerable miracles, he went together with the 12 apostles preaching to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt. 10: 6), he was a witness to the suffering, death, and Resurrection of the Saviour, and of His glorious Ascension into Heaven.
Having received the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which descended upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Matthew for the first 8 years preached in Palestine. And before his departure to preach the Gospel in faraway lands, at the request of the Jews remaining at Jerusalem, the holy Apostle Matthew in his Gospel gave account of the earthly life of the Saviour of the world – of the God-man Jesus Christ and His teaching.
In the order of the books of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew comes first. Palestine is said to be the place of writing of the Gospel. The Gospel was written by Saint Matthew in the year 42 ([AD – "Anno Domini" or "Year of the Lord",] i.e. after the Birth of Christ), in his native Jewish language, and then translated into Greek. The Hebrew text has not survived for us, but many of the linguistic and cultural-historical peculiarities of the Greek translation remind of it.
The Apostle Matthew preached among people having quite certain religious expectations about the Messiah. His Gospel manifests itself as a vivid proof that Jesus Christ – is the real Messiah, foretold of by the prophets, and that another there would not be (Mt. 11: 3). The preachings and deeds of the Saviour are presented by the evangelist in three divisions, constituting three aspects of the service of the Messiah: as Prophet and Law-Giver (Ch. 5-7), Lord over the world both visible and invisible (Ch. 8-25), and finally as High-Priest offered as Sacrifice for the sins of all mankind (Ch. 26-27). The theological content of the Gospel, besides the Christological themes, includes also the teaching about the Kingdom of God and about the Church, which the Lord sets forth in parables about the inner preparation for entering into the Kingdom (Ch. 5-7), about the worthiness of servers of the Church in the world (Ch. 10-11), about the signs of the Kingdom and its growth in the souls of mankind (Ch. 13), about the humility and simplicity of the inheritors of the Kingdom (Mt. 18: 1-35; 19: 13-30; 20: 1-16; 25-27; 23: 1-28), and about the eschatological revelations of the Kingdom in the Second Coming of Christ within the daily spiritual life of the Church (Ch. 24-25). The Kingdom of Heaven and the Church are closely inter-connected in the spiritual experience of Christianity: the Church is the historical embodiment of the Kingdom of Heaven in the world, and the Kingdom of Heaven is the Church of Christ in its eschatological perfection (Mt. 16: 18-19; 28: 18-20).
The holy Apostle made the rounds with the "good-news" [euangelia in Greek or evangelium in Latin – the meaning of the word "gospel"] to Syria, Media, Persia, Parthia, and finishing his preaching work in AEthiopia with a martyr's death. This land was inhabited by tribes of cannibals with primitive customs and beliefs. The holy Apostle Matthew by his preaching there converted some of the idol-worshippers to faith in Christ. He founded the Church and built a temple in the city of Mirmena, establishing there as bishop his companion by the name of Plato(n).
When the holy apostle was fervently beseeching God for the conversion of the Ethiopians, during the time of prayer the Lord Himself appeared to him in the form of a youth, and having given him a staff, commanded him to put it upright at the doors of the church. The Lord said, that from this staff would grow a tree and it would bear fruit, and from its roots would flow a stream of water. And in washing themselves in the water and eating of the fruit, the Ethiopians lost their wild ways and became gentle and good.
When the holy apostle carried the staff towards the church, on the pathway there met him the wife and son of the ruler of the land, Fulvian, who were afflicted by unclean spirits. By the Name of Christ the holy apostle healed them. This miracle converted to the Lord quite a number of the pagans. But the ruler did not want that his subjects should become Christians and cease to worship the pagan gods. He accused the apostle of sorcery and gave orders to execute him. They put saint Matthew head downwards, heaped up brushwood and ignited it. When the bonfire flared up, everyone then saw, that the fire did no harm to Saint Matthew. Then Fulvian gave orders to add more wood to the fire, and frenzied with boldness, he commanded to set up around the bonfire 12 idols. But the flames spread to the idols and caught on even Fulvian. The frightened Ethiopian turned to the saint with an entreaty for mercy, and by the prayer of the martyr the flame went out. The body of the holy apostle remained unharmed, and he expired to the Lord (+ 60).
The ruler Fulvian deeply repented his deed, but still he had doubts. By his command, they put the body of Saint Matthew into an iron coffin and threw it into the sea. In doing this Fulvian said, that if the God of Matthew would preserve the body of the apostle in the water, as He preserved him in the fire, then this would be proper reason to worship this One True God.
On that night the Apostle Matthew appeared to Bishop Platon in a dream vision, and commanded him to go with clergy to the shore of the sea and to find his body there. Together with the bishop on his way to the shore of the sea went Righteous Fulvian and his retinue. The coffin carried back by the waves was with honour taken to the church built by the apostle. Then Fulvian begged forgiveness of the holy Apostle Matthew, after which Bishop Platon baptised him, giving him the name Matthew in obedience to a command of God. Soon Saint Fulvian-Matthew abdicated his rule and became a presbyter. Upon the death of Bishop Platon, the Apostle Matthew appeared to him and exhorted him to head the AEthiopian Church. Having become a bishop, Saint Matthew-Fulvian toiled much at preaching the Word of God, continuing with the work of his heavenly patron-saint.
OVBS 2018 ST.MARY'S O C JAIPUR VIDEO FR. JOHNSON IYPE JAIPUR
OVBS 2018 ST.MARY'S O C JAIPUR VIDEO FR. JOHNSON IYPE JAIPUR
Transformation and Forgiveness Fr. Stephen Freeman
There are
various applications in our culture directed towards “feeling good about
ourselves.” In contrast to being shamed and condemned it is an improvement. But
it also misses the truth of things. Pretending that
everything is ok does not make it so.
God is the
author of our being – He deals in reality,
not in fiction. The great weakness of legal/forensic models of sin and
salvation is their failure to think in terms of reality. If sin is a legalproblem,
then its problem is not within itself but within some legal understanding that
exists elsewhere. In the state of Tennessee, possession of marijuana is a
crime. In the state of Colorado, it is not. Both are fictions. Pot itself is
not “legal” or “illegal,” it is just pot.
I have
been working my way through an interesting book, Robert Meagher’s Killing
from the Inside Out. He is a Catholic theologian examining Just War
theory. However, his approach is not one of examining the ideas of Just War. He
examines, instead, the actual effects of killing and war in the lives and
psyche of soldiers. His work consistently reveals the emptiness of Just War
Theory to account for the actual experiences of human beings. War is not a
legal problem; it is a matter of life and death.
Meagher
spent some years interviewing soldiers. He notes the sad phenomenon of the
suicide epidemic among our war veterans. In one chapter, he quotes a sad note
left by one soldier for his mother:
Mom, I am so sorry. My life
has been hell since March 2003 when I was part of the Iraq
invasion. . . . I am freeing myself from the desert once
and for all. . . . I am not a good person. I have done bad
things. I have taken lives. Now it’s time to take mine.
Meagher
uses the term “moral injury” to describe the wound carried by such veterans.
They have acted against their own moral compass and find it difficult to live
with themselves. This analysis, unfortunately, subjectivizes something that is
quite objective. More than a “moral injury,” sin is an ontological wound.
It haunts us because it is real. It is the madness of
Lady Macbeth’s, “Out! Out! Damn spot!” tortured by Duncan’s blood that she
imagines to always be on her hands.
It has
been commonplace in American military chaplaincies (at least as I’ve come to
understand them) to use Just War Theory as a means of supporting soldiers in
the spiritual problems that surround their actions. “If you had not killed him,
he would have killed you.” “You’re protecting the lives of our citizens,” etc.
Such legal justifications are revealed as ineffective against the “moral
injury” that Meagher describes. The same could be said of the whole of the
moral world when conceived in legal terms.
I will
suggest a primary text for considering our true, ontological transformation:
But we all, with unveiled
face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed
into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2
Cor. 3:18)
St. Paul
does not equate beholding the glory of the Lord as a reward for a life well-lived,
or as an imputed righteousness at the end of our journey. He is describing
something that is taking place at this present moment. When we are properly
directed towards God, we behold the face of Christ. We see two things: Christ’s
face (the truth of Who He Is), and our own selves (the truth of who we are).
That encounter often provokes something like shame within us. The emptiness,
brokenness, and sinfulness of our lives, when seen for what they are, make us
want to hide in His presence. But as we turn our eyes back to Him, there is a
slow cleansing, healing, forgiveness, and filling that take place. This occurs
because, standing before His face, we are in communion with Him. Who
He is begins
to heal who we are.
Two
passages from St. John’s first epistle come to mind:
But if we walk in the light
as He is in the light, we have communion with one another, and the blood of
Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn 4:7).
And
Beloved, now we are
children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know
that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
(1 Jn. 3:2)
To “walk
in the Light” I take to be synonymous with “beholding His face.” “Blessed
are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O LORD, in the light of
Your countenance.” (Ps. 89:15) To see Christ “as He is” I take to mean in the
“fullness of who He is.” St. Paul notes that our present sight of Christ is
“dim.” We do not see Him clearly because of our own brokenness and sin. This
requires that we return again and again to the face of Christ. This is the
slow, patient work of repentance. We cannot do it quickly – to see His face in
that manner, all of a sudden, would be to die.
As noted
earlier, to see Christ is also to see ourselves. Everything is revealed in the
truth of its existence in the presence of Christ. St. Paul uses a very rich
image of judgment:
For no other foundation can
anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds
on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each
one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be
revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If
anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet
so as through fire. (1 Cor. 3:11-15)
That which
lacks reality (sin, darkness, etc.) will disappear in the face of reality
(described as “fire”). That which is real and true (the truth of who we are)
will be refined. The false is lost, the true is saved.
This fire
already burns among us:
“I came to send fire on the
earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Lk. 12:49)
This
“fire” is the presence of Christ in the fullness of its truth. The writer of
Hebrews combines this image of fire with the image of shaking:
…whose voice then shook the
earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the
earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of
those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things
which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom
which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. (Heb. 12:26-29)
In both,
it is the impermanent (hay, wood, stubble, the unstable) that are removed. It
is the less-than-real-and-true that are burned and removed. If this imagery is
placed into an ontological context, we see it as a purification, the
destruction of sin and everything that distorts our being and existence.
The “moral
injury” of a soldier is merely one example among ever so many. He carries his
injury and sometimes feels as if the injury is greater than himself, that his
life has been overwhelmed. The damage done cannot be healed through the various
legal fictions we extrapolate into our world. Something must be changed,
removed, shaken, consumed in the fire of God’s love. I have long loved the
imagery in C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce. It paints
sin in ontological terms. On the one hand, sin reduces our reality, leaving us
ghost-like and thin as smoke. Sometimes sin is even seen as a ghostly lizard
that whispers and controls every action. In his book, forgiveness is a matter
of moving deeper into heaven, of becoming more real, more solid.
I imagine that
many read his work as a metaphor for the legal/forensic forgiveness of sin.
That, it seems to me, would be a very sad reversal. Lewis’ imagery is more
expressive of the ontological truth than any amount of forensic reasoning. Sin
is real and its effects are real, regardless of how we might reason about it.
There is nothing for it other than to submit ourselves to Reality itself.
This theme
resounds in the poetic words of St. Simeon the Translator that form part of the
prayers in preparation for communion:
O Lord, now as I approach
Holy Communion, may I not be burned by partaking unworthily. For you are fire
and burn the unworthy, I pray cleanse me of all sin.
Of Your mystical supper, O
Son of God, accept me today as a communicant; for I will not speak of Your
mystery to Your enemies, neither like Judas will I give You a kiss; but like
the thief will I confess You: remember me, O Lord, in Your kingdom.
Stand in fear, O soul, as
you look upon the deifying Blood for it is fire and burns the unworthy. May the
divine Body sanctify and nourish me. May it deify my soul and wondrously feed
my mind.
You have sweetened my
longing for You, O Christ and transfigured me with Your love. Let my sins be
consumed in the immaterial fire and grant me to be filled with Your joy, that I
may rejoice in both and glorify Your coming, O good One.
How can I, the unworthy
one, enter the radiance of the saints? For should I dare to go into the room,
my clothing betrays me for it is not a wedding garment and I will be bound and
cast out by the angels. But, O Lord, purify the stains of my soul and save me,
for You are the Lover of mankind.
Master, Lover of mankind,
Lord Jesus Christ my God, may these holy things not be for my condemnation, for
I am unworthy. May they be for me a cleansing, sanctification of both soul and
body and for assurance of the life and kingdom to come: for it is good for me
to cling to God and to place my hope of salvation in the Lord.
Icon of the Mother of God?
Port Arthur icon of the Mother of God, alternatively known as The Triumph of Theotokos, is the only known image of the Most Pure Virgin where She holds a cloth with the Image of Christ Not-Made-By-Hands in Her hands.
This icon is also unique because it was the first
image of the Most Holy Theotokos to be revealed to Christians in the 20th
century. A sailor named Theodore Katansky who visited Kiev Caves Lavra in 1903
told other believers about it. He had been a hero of the defense of Sevastopol
during the Crimean War.
The old sailor related that he had seen the Mother
of God with an image of Christ Not-Made-By-Hands in a dream after praying for
Russian sailors who served in the Far East.
The Blessed Virgin appeared to him surrounded by
Angels and saints. Our Lady comforted the sailor and told him that Russia was
soon to enter into a devastating and difficult war, full of losses and
troubles, along its coastal borders. That was why She ordered to have Her icon
painted and sent to Port Arthur. Brought to the walls of the distant city and
naval base, the holy image was meant to help the Orthodox triumph over the
pagans and inspire Russian soldiers and sailors to fight bravely.
The icon was painted for free by P.F. Stronde, a
painter from Kiev, in 1904, using materials purchased for donated money and
following the old sailor’s instructions. There was an inscription around the
image, which read, “Blessings and wishes of victory to the Christ-loving army
of the Far Russia from holy monasteries of Kiev, 10 000 believers and friends.”
The icon was sent to Saint Petersburg.
Unfortunately, military officials in the capital slowed down its delivery to
the fortress. The image arrived in the Far East when Port Arthur had already
been blocked by the Japanese. After a short stay in Vladivostok, it was sent to
General Kuropatkin’s headquarters. Due to the hasty retreat, Port Arthur icon
and several other holy objects were lost.
The image was miraculously re-discovered in 1998.
It was bought by a group of Russian pilgrims in an antiques shop in Jerusalem
on Via Dolorosa. It remains unclear how and when it got there. The
wonder-working icon returned to Vladivostok after restoration. It stays in the
Cathedral in honor of Holy Protection of the Mother of God in this Russian city.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)